1. Technical Field
This disclosure relates to a facsimile apparatus, and more particularly, to a facsimile apparatus that easily obtains accurate reception capacity information of each transmission destination, and performs accurate and efficient facsimile transmission of e-mail image files through a network.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, a facsimile apparatus has been used in a stand-alone state in which the apparatus operates independently, and conventional facsimile communication procedures (transmission procedures) have been set in accordance with the ITU (International Telecommunication Union)-T recommendation T.30.
In the general G3/G4 facsimile communication procedures, function exchange among G3 DIS/DCS signals or G4 CSS/RSSP signals is carried out at the time of transmission, so that the function having the highest possible communication speed that can be accepted on the receiving end can be used for transmission. The function is stored in the apparatus, and is reused for the next transmitting operations to the same receiving end.
As the performance of each apparatus has advanced and the communication networks have developed in recent years, facsimile apparatuses having functions of transmitting and receiving image information to and from other apparatuses via a network such as the Internet have been produced (see Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application Nos. 2000-332940, 2001-265675, 2002-199198, 2000-183949, 2001-203847, and 2002-218152).
Such facsimile apparatuses that perform communications via a network utilize the ITU-T recommendation T.37 simple-mode, as disclosed in Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application No. 2002-252736.
In any of the above facsimile apparatuses, however, the ITU-T recommendation T.37 simple-mode utilizing a network (the Internet) is employed. With any of those conventional facsimile apparatuses, image data (image file) transmission can be carried out via the Internet, but the function of the transmission destination cannot be ascertained before the facsimile communication via the Internet. This is the problem with those conventional network facsimile apparatuses.
The ITU-T recommendation T.37 simple-mode employed by the conventional facsimile apparatuses utilizing the Internet does not include a capacity negotiating procedure, and therefore, transmission and reception are generally carried out with the default parameters (A4/200 dpi or 200×100 dpi/MH).
More specifically, the facsimile apparatus on the transmitting end cannot determine the functions of a transmission destination apparatus. Even if the apparatus on the receiving end has a function that is compatible with a compression method such as MMR (Modified MR) or JBIG (Joint Binary Image Group), each transmitting operation includes a process of compressing an image file by the MH (modified Huffman) method, which is the default compressing mode. This causes inconvenience in facsimile communications. As transmission is always carried out in the default compressing mode, the amount of transmission data increases, and the load on the network also increases. This also causes longer communications times with Internet providers, resulting in higher communications costs.
On the other hand, the ITU-T recommendation T.37 full-mode can provide a function of sending delivery confirmation mail to notify a facsimile apparatus on the transmitting end of the reception capacity on the receiving end. In this case, the facsimile apparatus on the transmitting end needs to have a function of storing the reception capacity information of each facsimile apparatus serving as a transmission destination. Storing of the reception capacity information can be carried out through an operation by a user.
However, if the facsimile apparatus on the receiving end does not show (provide) the reception capacity information in the delivery confirmation mail, the ITU-T recommendation T.37 full-mode function of the facsimile apparatus on the transmitting end cannot be fully utilized. In such a case, transmission is carried out only with the default parameters, unless a user expands the settings.